


To the Clouds

by bar_allen



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Annoyed Merlin, Arthurian, Attempt at Humor, Court Sorcerer Merlin, Light Angst, Post-Magic Reveal, the knights are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 09:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bar_allen/pseuds/bar_allen
Summary: When Merlin's new duties as Court Sorcerer become too stressful, his control slips leading to a very odd display of magic.





	To the Clouds

It had been 8 months since he revealed his magic to Arthur. 6 months since the ban on magic was lifted. 5 months and four weeks since he was promoted as Court Sorcerer. 4 months since his first fight as Court Sorcerer, since the first time he was able to protect Arthur from the frontlines rather than the shadows, since himself as well as Mordred were praised by the citizens of Camelot for protecting them from the evil sorcerer. He had been accepted by his friends, acknowledged, _thanked_ even. So why was life still so hard?

Oh, of course. The council.

The King might have accepted him. His friends might have accepted him. The whole city might have accepted him. But none of that was enough for the council. Most of them had been there since Uther’s time. They had grown more fearful and hateful of magic with every attack, and now, Arthur had asked them to throw all that away. And Merlin had understood their anger and reluctance, he really had, but with every passing day, every disgusted look, every nasty remark, his patience had grown thinner. And Merlin had not been known for his never-ending patience. Sure, he would never lose his temper as quickly as Arthur would, but it had still been too much, and it had been _6 months, for goodness’ sake_. And to add to all of that, if he had thought his job as a servant was demanding, he had no words to describe his new job as a member of the court. Besides helping Arthur write all the new magical laws, and helping Gaius create magical potions to heal the patients faster, he had an ever-growing list of “magical complaints”- or as he liked to call them - a waste of his time. As part of his new job as Court Sorcerer, he was forced to help every citizen who had a magical problem, meaning, if a citizen thought their crops were not growing as fast as they should, that meant their neighbour had placed a curse on their soil, and they needed Merlin’s help to fix it. And most of the time, magic would not have been involved at all. Therefore, it was a total waste of his time.

So to say his patience had been wearing thin would be an understatement. Which meant that his control over his magic had been… compromised. Or at least, that was what he would tell Arthur after the whole incident.

It had been an already cloudy day. They had been in a council meeting for three hours discussing the new magical laws when it happened. Merlin had gotten into a discussion with one of the least pleasant council members. Then the man lost his temper and hurled insults at Merlin. “Evil”, “lowly peasant”, “enchanted us all” were words that could be heard in the old man’s rant. And with every word, Merlin could feel his magic grow more restless under his skin. Merlin could hear Arthur’s angry voice, shouting for the man to control himself, Gwen’s soft but firm voice berating him and telling everyone that Merlin was a royal court member and he should be respected as such, Mordred’s concerned voice in his head, asking if he was alright, his voice growing more urgent as Merlin’s control slipped away, bit by bit. The world was a hazy blur, and amidst all his friends’ voices, the loudest sound was that of his own heartbeat.

It all happened so quickly. One moment he was sitting with his head facing the council member. The next he was floating. Literally.

Later, when he would look back on that experience, he would remember taking a deep breath, then letting his magic go. He would remember his body crackling with unlimited energy for one second, and then complete nothingness. He would remember the utter silence for one second and then the loud gasps accompanied by shouts of confusion, anger, concern, with Arthur and Mordred’s voices being the loudest.

But right now, all he could feel was peace. There was a complete and utter lack of constrictions, both mental and physical. He could see everywhere and everything all at once. He let his body float with the wind towards the nearest window. And that was when he realised.

_He was a cloud._

_A literal cloud._

His first thought as a cloud was that Arthur was never going to let him live that down. His second thought was how on Earth was he supposed to turn back?

His third thought, however, was that a part of him did not want to turn back. At least not yet. He wanted to float away from all the stress and anger, the hateful council, from his destiny, the dragon’s riddles, all the arguing and fighting.  

His fourth thought was that the third thought was totally ridiculous. He could not just leave his friends behind and he certainly could not live life as a _cloud_.

His fifth thought, again, was that Arthur was _never_ going to let him live _turning into a cloud in the middle of a meeting_ down.

And then he decided he needed to turn back. Thankfully, even as a cloud, he could still feel his magic. He concentrated as hard as he could, imagined himself back in his human body, and then once again let his magic go. And in a split second, his body was whole again. And he was falling. Then he was using magic to stop himself from getting hurt as he landed on the ground, before losing consciousness.

A few hours later, he was awake, in the patient’s cot in Gaius’ chambers, having just listened to Gaius berate him about losing control of his magic. Then it was time for the dreaded conversation.

“So,” Arthur started as he sat down on a chair next to Merlin, “what on Earth happened?”

“I lost control of my magic.”

“No, really?”

Merlin rolled his eyes, “what do you want me to say?”

“I want you to explain to me why my Court Sorcerer turned into a cloud and floated out of a window in the middle of a court meeting.”

“I was angry. And stressed.”

“So you turned into a cloud?”

Merlin sighed, “You’re such a prat.”

“And you’re such a _girl_. You got so emotional that you turned into a _cloud_ , Merlin,” Arthur smirked.

“I told you I lost control of my magic!”

“I fail to see your point,” Arthur shrugged.

Merlin shook his head, “that’s because you’re thick headed.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes and looked like he was about to argue before he smirked again, “at least I never turned into a cloud.”

Merlin groaned in annoyance. If Arthur was being like this, he hated to think what the other knights would say, especially Gwaine. They would never let him forget that day as long as he lived. And if during the next council meeting that nasty old man was not present, then that was the only thing about that day they would never mention again.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this came to me after learning that in the original legends, when Merlin is angry or stressed, he would turn into a cloud. I meant to write this as a joke but ended up going into a bit of a character study. Tell me what you think!


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